Police rule out criminal inquiry into MP's sex encounter in Commons

Published on Saturday 4 April 2009 19:57

POLICE yesterday ruled out ordering a criminal investigation into Nigel Griffiths, the Edinburgh South MP who had a sexual encounter in his House of Commons office.

Griffiths, a close friend of Gordon Brown, cheated on his wife Sally with an unknown woman when he had an liaison with her on Remembrance Day last year.

At first, the MP issued a denial after a newspaper reported that he had taken a woman into his study, where they had sex on a sofa.

Later he admitted that the encounter had taken place. Their meeting was recorded on a digital camera in a series of pictures that appeared to have been taken by the MP and the woman.

The newspaper said Griffiths, who has been married for 30 years, and the woman then moved to another address in London, where their affair continued.

Griffiths has faced calls for a criminal investigation from members of the public and the Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has received a letter calling on him to charge the MP with misconduct in public office.

Yesterday a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "Having considered the complaint, the Met Office believes the matter can be dealt with by the parliamentary commissioner for standards and therefore is not commencing a criminal investigation."

Last week, John Lyon, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, dismissed complaints that Griffiths' behaviour breached the MPs' Code of Conduct, which requires that members "never undertake any action which would bring the House of Commons, or its Members generally, into disrepute".

Lyon said there was "not sufficient evidence of a breach of the code". He added: "The code states that it does not seek to regulate what members do in their purely private and personal lives."

It was claimed that Griffiths took 27 "explicit" pictures of the woman in his oak-panelled Commons study late at night on Remembrance Day last year and a further 44 pictures at another location soon afterwards, then downloaded them all from his camera to his laptop.

The newspaper claimed the pictures, dated by the camera's digital clock, showed the pair together from 11.55pm to 12.33am.

Half an hour later, the camera dates them in another location with the woman lying naked on a rug in what appears to have been a nearby flat. Griffiths was also said to have stripped off and more photos were taken until 2.24am.

When the article was published, Griffiths described the story as "absolutely groundless" and "outrageous".

Later he backtracked when he admitted that he was "ashamed" and accepted that his "conduct fell below acceptable standards. I have little recollection of the evening, but that doesn't make it right".

At the beginning of last week Griffiths attempted to obtain a court injunction to prevent more disclosures in the Sunday newspaper.

His plea was thrown out by the High Court judge Mr Justice King, who said the goings-on were a legitimate matter of public interest. The judge said: "I accept the fact that the claimant has not only taken pictures but also downloaded them does not sit easily with his public statement that he is ashamed and has little recollection."

The Metropolitan Police were asked to investigate Griffiths's behaviour by John Wallace, a former soldier from Edinburgh who wrote to the Met Commissioner.

Wallace said: "I'm extremely disappointed that the police are not going to pursue this. A lot of other public servants have been charged under the same thing. It just looks like there is one rule for them and one rule for us."